Fed Up With Fierce Dogs
Tanya Nel
What was supposed to have been a pleasant
visit with an old friend over the weekend, turned
wrong when Mr Boet Visser, 48, from Grootfontein
was attacked by his friend's 4 Pitbulterriers.
According to the dog's owner, Mr. Rocky Bruwer,
Mr Visser arrived at his house just after 5 pm on
Saturday. Mrs. Elizabeth Bruwer was alone at home.
To prevent the dogs from getting on to the road,
Mr. Bruwer had a double gate system installed on
his property. Mr. Visser entered the first gate,
and while he was trying to close the second gate
behind him, one dog bit him, then the other dogs
stormed him, knocked him down, and attacked his
throat.
Mrs. Bruwer was incapable of bringing the dogs under
control, and called her daughter to help. They held
the dogs while Mr. Visser tried to get out by the
gate. They phoned Mr. Bruwer to take his friend
to hospital in Tsumeb. Apparently the dogs were
still hyped from Saturday afternoon's incident that
they bit a man on the leg who came to visit Mr.
Bruwer's daughter that same evening.
The Terriers which are about 2 years old, according
to Mr Bruwer, have no previous history of biting.
"They are wonderful dogs. I raised them myself,
and something like this has never happened before".
Mr Bruwer was frustrated and does not know what
to do. "I have already phoned a behaviour therapist
psychologist in Johannesburg twice to get information
with regards to this incident". He is now considering
putting the female who bit Mr Visser first, down.
Fierce Dogs Rehabilitated.
Tanya Nel
Four Pitbulterriers that attacked 2 people at Kombat
about a week ago have been rehabilitated by Pam
Whyte, a natural dog trainer from Johannesburg.
Their rehabilitation was made so much easier because
they were first time offenders. Pam was invited
by the dog's owner, Mr. Rocky Bruwer to come to
Namibia after his dog had bitten his friend, Mr.
Boet Visser and another man the previous Saturday
to assist him with his dogs.
The rehabilitation process took about five days,
after which the dogs were a lot calmer and showed
no more signs of aggression. Pam stayed in the house
with the Bruwers and their dogs, and visitors were
able to come in and out of the gate safely, with
the dogs greeting them instead of attacking them.
Pam explained that the dogs' predatory instincts
had been activated by the hunger caused by dieting,
and by the certain actions of the owners which unwittingly
caused the dogs to perceive the visitors as prey
by causing adrenalin surges in the dogs. Which basically
sums up the scientific reasons for all "out
of the blue" dog attacks on children, visitors
and family members. Once the dogs' hunger was alleviated,
and the source of adrenalin was identified, the
dogs lost their urge to attack, and became totally
trustworthy. (Except to burglars.)
[Appendix. Mrs. Bruwer phoned Pam 5 years later
to tell her that the dogs never attacked again -
except once - to protect them against an intruder.]
